Retention in sla lexical processing

Abstract

Second language learners are faced with the challenging task of remembering many new words. Exactly how learners are supposed to accomplish that task is disputed. Research on lexical processing that has been carried out in cognitive psychology showed that rehearsing words in expanded patterns, that is, with a delay between each re-hearsal, leads to high retention rates. This article reports on a study that was devised to test retention in second language vocabulary learning, comparing a uniform versus a graduated delay. The study used an online vocabulary program testing first-year students of German. Results showed that on long-term retention, a uniform delay led to higher retention rates than a graduated delay.